I was asked to give examples of things we might be worshiping today without knowing it. Let me first share something that will help
you identify things in your own life that either were false gods in the
past or are false gods to you now. Whenever something, or someone
becomes very important to you, there's a danger of it being or becoming a
false god. Normally when something or someone is real important to us,
we attach very strong feelings to it. Those strong feelings then can
be a "warning sign" for us to look and see what is causing the feeling.
We've already learned to take our thoughts captive, so this will simply
be one more step to take whenever we are feeling a strong negative
emotion like anger or bitterness, or fear, etc. When we feel those
things, the first thing we need to do still is to take it captive and
replace it with God's Truth. Once we've done that though, we should
then ask ourselves some questions to determine if that anger or fear or
whatever we felt is pointing to a false god. Please know that just
because we get really angry, fearful, jealous, sad, or something does
NOT mean that there is definitely a false god involved, but it is
possible. What is does mean for sure is that if nothing else we need to
talk to the Lord about it and find our what is causing it so we can
overcome it with His help.
Any thing or person that is a false god in
our lives is going to cause us to have strong emotions about it, so
that's why they can be used as warning signs. What are some questions
you could ask yourself to find out if there is a false god behind those
feelings? I ask myself things like: “Why do
I feel threatened?” “What am I afraid I am going to lose?” “What goal,
desire, or belief is being blocked or threatened?” “What’s so
important that it's causing me to explode or lose control?” "Where is this coming from?" "What's adding fuel to this emotion?" If we want to discover our false gods, it's important to trace overwhelming feelings and reactions back to their source. Most
important, we need to ask the Lord to help us look behind these
feelings to discover if we may have turned something or someone into a
false god - into the "ultimate thing of importance" in our lives.
As for examples, the easiest way for me to do
that is to share what the Lord has shown me in my own life. I have to
admit though, this one really shocked me! Many here know that I've had
some difficulties with my adult children over the years. Something
happened recently that caused me to feel deeply hurt and disappointed
with some of them again. (notice the strong emotions I felt) I did take
the thoughts and emotions captive and began to dwell on God's truth
instead of the incident in order to replace those thoughts and feelings
with Him and His Truth. Once I was sure that I was under control, I then
began talking to the Lord about it.
That was when He pointed out to me that my children had become a false
god in my life. To say I was shocked would be an understatement! I
wanted to deny it; I didn't want to believe it, but I knew the Lord was
right. My children and my relationship with them as a whole, had indeed
become a false god. They were the thing in my life that was "most
important". They had taken God's place in my heart. I was looking to
them for love, acceptance and approval, instead of looking to God for
those things. In fact, I wanted those things from them, more then I
wanted them from God.
I would sometimes allow thoughts and feelings about my children, or
about something they'd done or not done, to determine how I acted or
felt instead of being obedient to God.
The Lord showed me all that and more and of
course I repented of it. Since then, I've felt a great deal of peace
about that whole situation that had been missing for a long time.
Since then, I've been studying about it and have discovered that our
loved ones can often become our false gods if we're not careful.
Other people that often become a false god are those people that we think do not love us, but who we want to have love us. In fact, I'd say that was one of the biggest dangers of all.
Some other things that can become false gods are our pets or animals that we love deeply. It all boils down to a desire to be loved, accepted and appreciated by someone/something. The
Lord tells us that He is the one who loves us though and we're to lay
our expectations of other people at His cross because other people are
always going to let us down. If we leave our expectations at His cross
and go to Him for our love and acceptance and approval, then, God can
heal the broken places inside us so that eventually we can have a
healthy loving relationship with other people too.
Other false Gods might be the false god of
materialism, or money, or success, security, false gods of image,
outward beauty, youth, etc. Or as John pointed out things like cars or
motorcycles or other inanimate objects can even be our false gods if we
make them that important in our lives.
Whenever we see a quality about ourselves, such as beauty or youth, etc.
as something that we must have or maintain or as something we strongly
desire, it may be a false god. It may be that we think that if we have
that quality that it means we will be loved and accepted and approved by
either: the world, men, the one we want to love us, or by our boss, or
the public, etc. We have made that quality about ourselves into the
thing that makes us worthwhile, but that's a lie. (which is why it's a
false god) God is the one who makes us worthwhile. He is the one who
loves us and accepts us, and we do not need that quality in order for
Him to love and accept us.
One of the things I discovered a long time
ago was my false god was my job. I thought I was the best at my job and
did it well. It wasn't until I got hurt and couldn't work anymore that I
discovered it had become an idol, a false god, to me. I defined myself
by my job. Really, I defined myself by two things: my job and my
children -being a mother. So in reality, my children were a false god
even back then.
As before, the Lord showed me that what I did, did not make me worthwhile and loved.
What I had did not make me worthwhile and loved.
What I could contribute did not make me worthwhile and loved.
Whether I was good looking, had money, worked, or anything else, did not make me worthwhile and loved.
God made me worthwhile and He loved me and it wasn't due to any of those things.
So really anything that we think causes us to be worthwhile or loved, can be a false god in our lives. I have a feeling that we all have a bunch of them that we didn't even
realize were there. But our Lord will help us discover them and get rid
of them so we can have the peace and joy He wants us to have now.
Positive feelings could also indicate indicate a false god or idol. I'm trying to think of times in my life and the things that I
now know were false gods in order to give an example.....
For instance, when I was seeking love and acceptance from men instead of
God - always looking to my husband instead of God, my feelings were
mixed, but at times - when my husband happened to be giving me the love I
thought I wanted, I'd be very happy. It was only when he wasn't doing
that, that I'd be unhappy.
Another false God I had was first my school
work and then later, when I was older, my job. I worked hard and made
mostly A's in school, and when I'd make an A, I'd be happy, and that was
most of the time. But when I'd get even one question wrong, even
though I'd still get an "A", because it wasn't perfect, I'd be very
unhappy. I know that sounds ridiculous to most people, but that's how I
was. I strove for perfection because deep inside I thought I had to be
perfect to be loved and accepted by God. My school work, and then
later my job, became false gods because I was looking to them to prove
my love and acceptance, or to prove that I was lovable and acceptable,
however you want to look at it. I
remember how I would get very stressed out when it was time for our
boss to do our job reviews. Again, I was striving for perfection and
worried that I wouldn't measure up. All my reviews were very good, but
the problem was, the last question on each review was "What can your
employee do to improve?" To me, that was the same thing as saying that I
wasn't good enough. My mind knew better, but my heart didn't. So I
always got very upset when it would come to that last answer no matter
how gently my boss tried to word his answer. It
wasn't until I knew the Lord and gave up my false gods and accepted His
love and acceptance, that those things no longer bothered me. Because
then I finally understood that by myself, I could do nothing good - and
that was ok because everyone is that way; but that the Lord loved and
accepted me anyway, even at my very worst, and because He did, His love
made me worthwhile. I no longer
needed to strive to make Him love me, or strive to prove I was lovable.
Instead, I could just love Him back and rejoice in His love for me.
One way to tell is to ask yourself who is being glorified by your thoughts and feelings. Is it you? Is it another person, place or thing? Or, is it God
I suspect that everything
in this life, and every person we know or wished we knew, as well as we
ourselves, could be a false god and idol for us. I guess I need
to just state that instead of giving examples like I did. No, not
really...I think the examples help some too because hopefully they show
how perfectly ordinary things can be a false god. Because a false god is simply something or someone that we think is super important to us in some way, shape or form. In fact, here's another one that really surprised me because it's not something anyone would "want" to have...
I also discovered that the pain I'm in can be
a false god or idol to me at times. For example, that time I wrote
about in the pain forum, when I trusted in the pain more then I trusted
God, remember? At that moment, it became an idol; a false god for me. I
guess I should explain that in case anyone who's not a pain forum
member reads this:
I'd been in a great deal of pain, especially at night and one
evening got very upset and didn't want to go to bed because I "knew"
what would happen when I did -the pain would get worse. So I wound up
staying up all night.
The Lord pointed
out to me that the reason I had the problem and got so upset that
night, was because I'd turned away from Him and allowed myself to dwell
on the possibility or likelihood of the pain instead. I'd
basically put my faith in the pain happening and me not being able to
handle it instead of taking the thoughts and fear captive and replacing
them with God's Word which says that His strength is made perfect in
our weakness and that He is our strength and is always, always with me
and loves me and will sustain me and give me peace. So, really, I
traded my peace for fear and self pity.
The Lord pointed that out to me the next day and I was quite ashamed of
myself then, especially when I realized that I'd literally put the pain
ahead of Him. See by focusing on the pain, it promised me that I
wouldn't get hurt if I just stayed up, but it lied, as false gods always
do. If I had taken those strong emotions of fear, anger, and self pity
as a warning sign, I would have realized something wasn't as it seemed.
But during that time I was determined to be disobedient to the Lord.
I knew I should take the thoughts and feelings captive, but I refused
to. I even lied to myself and told myself that they were there to
"warn" me - meaning that they were warning me not to go to bed. Well I
was half right. They were warning me, but it wasn't about that. They
were giving me the same warning they always do and telling me to take my
thoughts captive because they were lies. But I chose to believe the
lies and to dwell on them instead of on God and His strength and His
help.
So you see, even something as unpleasant and disagreeable as severe pain can become a false god and idol if we allow it to.
Another big one that most of us have had at one time or another is our
past. We often give our past much power over us instead of taking those
thoughts captive like we're told to and replacing them with God's Truth
about us. .
Still another one that we've all probably had at
one time or another is ourselves. Yes, we even make ourselves into a
false god at times, like in the example I gave Eva.
It just goes to show that anything can be a false god.
More posts about idols:
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